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Bible. 1 had quit attending church at
eighteen, and had never had any
real religious interest.
1
was shocked- actually stunned–
when
1
read in the Bible, in Romans
6:23: "The wages of sin is
death. ..."
1
had been taught from
early boyhood that what we got
paid for sin was ETERNAL LIFE–
though in "hellfire." Here
1
had
been taught in Sunday school just
the opposite of what the Bible
taught. But the last half of the sen–
tence ftoored me just as hard:
" ... but the gift of God is eterna!
life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
WHAT? Eternallife a GIFT?
1
had
been taught
1
already had eterna!
life.
1
was an immortal soul.
You see,
1
had told my wife that
I
knew the Bible said, "Thou shalt
keep Sunday." 1 didn't know where
to find that in the Bible,
1
admitted.
But
1
knew it must be there, "be–
cause,"
1
said, "all these churches
get their religion out of the Bible,
and they all (but one
1
thought of as
fanatical) observe Sunday. All these
churches can't be wrong,"
1
argued.
In this study 1 obtained every
book
1
could find that upheld Sun–
day observance and condemned
Saturday Sabbath-keeping. But
1
also obtained a Seventh-day Ad–
ventist book explaining their doc–
trines, and also a book called
Bible
Home Instructor
(or something like
that ) published by the Church of
God, Stanberry, Missouri. It was
one of their members, neighbor to
my parents' home in Salem, Ore–
gon, who had convinced my wife
she ought to keep the Sabbath,
F riday sunset to Saturday sunset.
On carefully checking with the
Bible, l found most denominations
had sorne Bible truth. l could see
plainly from my own biblical study
they were totally contrary to the Bible
in many other beliefs. As my study
continued, always relying on the
BIBLE- which, incidentally, I had
PROVEO to be the inspired WORD OF
Goo-1 discovered that this Church
of God had more biblical truth than
any church 1could find.
Slmon's Apostasy
But as my own in-depth study con–
tinued, 1 found much they lacked. I
The PLAIN TRUTH February 1978
later discovered they were described
in Revelation 3 as the Sardis era of
God's Church. 1 discovered that af–
ter the great persecution which had
set in about A.D. 33 Simon the sor–
cerer, leader of the " Babylonian
Mystery" religion, was refused an
apostleship in God's Church. He, as
1
leamed from other sources, never–
theless represented himself as chief
a post! e, adopting the name of
Christ- or Christian. He proclaimed
the biblical doctrine of "grace" or
forgiveness of sin through Christ's
death, but tumed it into license to
disobey (Jude
4).
This Babylonian Mystery reli–
gion, now masquerading as "Chris–
tianity," suppressed the gospel
Christ had taught. Jesus brought the
announcement of the Kingdom of
God. Simon's false church claimed
their church was the Kingdom, al–
ready set up. He proclaimed a DIF–
FERENT Jesus as well as a DIFFERENT
gospel. He proclaimed a Christ who
DIO AWAY with His Father's com–
mandments- thus doing away with
the basic constitution and law of the
Kingdom of God. He taught, and
his false church later (A.D. 32 1)
made official, the ' 'Trinity" doctrine,
saying the Holy Spirit of God is
~
GHOST-a third spirit PERSON–
thereby doing away with the fact
that we can be begotten by God's
Spirit and enter the Kingdom at the
time ofthe resurrection.
Solvlng a Jlgsaw Puzzle
As stated before, the true Church
virtually went "underground." The
true Church did continue through
EVERY GENERATION tO now. But
when I first carne among them, in
1926-27, they had lost most of the
true gospe1! Little by Httle God re–
vealed His true gospel, in all its full–
ness, tome.
But first God had to complete1y
disillusion my mind of all 1 had
been taught in Sunday school prior
to age eighteen. God caused me to
come to His work with a mind swept
clean of all these false teachings–
free to reject er ror and accept
TRUTH! 1 know of no other world–
wide religious leader since the origi–
nal apostles, and
~aul,
all of whom
were taught by Christ IN PERSON,
who ever carne to God's teachings
in this manner!
l found the Sardis-era Church of
God retained only a smattering of
the full true gospel. They under–
stood Christ is coming to REIGN, and
He will reign 1,000 years, and ON
EARTH! (Seventh-day Adventists say
in heaven.) But they had lost all
knowledge that we could be BORN OF
Goo, entering His Kingdom which
is HIS FAMILY as HIS BORN CHIL·
OREN. They had no conception of
what the Kingdom of God is or
would be like. Sorne believed in a
pre-millennial coming of Christ,
sorne in a post-millennial coming.
They had the truth about the Sab–
bath, but not the annual Sabbaths.
They had the truth about NOT going
to heaven, and that the earth is the
inheritance of the "saved." They
had the truth a bout the "state of the
dead"-that the dead are uncon–
scious and know nothing-that the
next consciousness after death wiJI
take place at the resurrection. They
knew the "hellfire" commonly
preached is error, and that usually
the word "hell" is translated from
the Hebrew
sheol
and Greek
hades,
meaning simply the "grave." (In
sorne cases "hell" is translated from
the Greek
gehenna,
meaning tire
that BURNS UP what is burned in
it.)
They believed in water baptism
by immersion. They believed- one
of their most emphasized points–
Jesus was three days and three
nights in the grave (crucified
Wednesday, resurrected Saturday
evening, and al ready gone while it
was yet dark at sunrise Sunday).
Thus they did away with Easter, and
they did not observe Christmas,
since it was a pagan holiday and
Jesus was not boro at or near De–
cember 25. They believed in the
" law of God" and knew sin was the
transgression ofGod's law.
Let me say here that the Bible is
like a jigsaw puzzle. You find its
truths here a little- there a little.
lt
does not start out with Genesis 1: 1
and go straight through with ALL of
God's revealed KNOWLEDGE and
TRUTH in direct sequence. In fact,
the REAL beginning is not Genesis
1:1 , but John 1:
l.
Much had hap-
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